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Managing or preventing chronic conditions such as diabetes, pre-diabetes, or heart disease can feel overwhelming. But there’s a path to better health—one that helps you build healthy habits related to eating, movement, sleep, and social connection to help you live a healthier, longer life and in some cases, even reverse chronic disease.
Lifestyle medicine provides proven strategies to manage and prevent chronic diseases, using medications only as an adjunct. By concentrating on six essential areas, you can significantly improve your daily wellness:
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Eating healthy foods - mainly a whole food, plant based diet
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Getting regular exercise
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Managing stress in a healthy way
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Getting enough sleep
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Building strong social connections
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Avoiding risky behaviors
These interventions work. Research shows lifestyle medicine can lead to diabetes remission, weight loss, and medication reductions, all with long-term effectiveness and lower costs. As a MedStar Health primary care patient, you have access to our Healthy Living program to help support your wellness goals.
4 lifestyle tips to live well and help manage chronic disease.
1. Focus on what you can control.
While you can’t change your family history or genetics, your choices can make a bigger impact on your health than you might expect. Eating, exercise, and sleep are just a few powerful examples.
When you’re building healthy habits, MedStar Health doctors recommend taking a slow and steady approach. Instead of going from “0 to 100,” focus on gradual changes. That way, you can celebrate and build on your successes.
2. Eat fiber-forward.
Increasing the fiber in your diet is a key strategy for stabilizing blood sugar. Foods that contain fiber slow the absorption of sugar, preventing sharp spikes that can harm health. It can also help lower cholesterol and aid in weight loss. To boost the fiber in your diet, power up your plate with fruits and vegetables. Incorporate legumes (peas, lentils, chickpeas, etc.), beans, and whole grains into your daily meals to get fiber’s powerful benefits.
3. Move your body.
Physical activity helps your body’s cells use blood sugar for energy more efficiently, helping keep your levels in check to improve how your body creates and uses energy, often called metabolic health.
If you’re new to exercising, take small steps, literally. Walking is a great way to start. When you’re considering how much to move, doctors recommend 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity per week. That’s 30-60 minutes five days a week.
If you’re not sure what “moderate-intensity” means, try the talk test. If you can talk during your exercise but not sing, it’s probably moderately intense. If you can’t talk, you’re doing vigorous-intensity activity.
Having trouble getting going? Try combining an exercise like squats or walking with something you enjoy, such as watching TV or listening to a podcast. Getting moving makes a big difference in your health and your quality of life.
4. Prioritize sleep and stress management.
Stress and poor sleep can negatively impact your blood pressure and sugar levels. While many stressors are out of your control, you can manage how you respond. When stress gets out of hand, try a guided meditation or gratitude journaling to help shift your perspective and calm your nerves.
Good sleep is essential for the body. Establish a consistent bedtime and improve your sleep quality by limiting screens beforehand. Their bright light can disrupt your body’s natural rhythms.
Related: Read "When To Trust a Smartwatch for Your Heart (And When Not To!)."
Our Healthy Living program (HLP) enables MedStar Health primary care patients who qualify to choose the services that help them achieve success. Working with clinical experts, participants set personalized goals that are realistic, measurable, and timely.
Program series are eight weeks (four shared telehealth visits total, and each session lasts about 60 minutes). These sessions are led by a clinical provider and a health and wellness coach to help you stay informed, motivated, and educated about lifestyle medicine principles.
The program is open to MedStar Health primary care patients. To join, simply request a referral from your primary care physician.
Shared telehealth medical visits are the heart of the HLP, because these sessions provide:
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Shared wisdom: Participants swap practical advice, such as recipes, how to read grocery labels or finding the best local workout classes.
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Accountability: Social connection can help motivate you to stick to your plans, and it’s easier to make sure you stay active when your peers are expecting to see you at the next session.
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Proven success: Many participants report measurable improvements in important measures such as cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and body mass index (BMI).
Beyond diabetes: HLP for other conditions.
Blood sugar management is a primary focus of the HLP, and this program is designed for anyone managing a chronic condition. Patients qualify for the program if they are over age 18 and diagnosed with any of these chronic conditions:
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Depression
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Diabetes or prediabetes
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Mild cognitive impairment
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Transient ischemic attack (TIA, or mini stroke)
Improving health, improving life.
MedStar Health offers our Healthy Living program to help our patients live longer, healthier lives. Making small, meaningful changes today can help you spend more time doing the things you love with the people who matter to you.
By focusing on the foundations of lifestyle medicine, you’re investing in a future that’s stronger, more energized, and more in control of your own health. Talk with your MedStar Health primary care provider about how you could benefit from a referral to the HLP. We are here to work with you to help you live longer, better, and healthier.
